“TL;DR: Over 95% of “before and after” cellulite pictures circulating online and on social media are manipulated, exploiting public trust to promote dubious treatments. These deceptive images, often showcasing dramatic transformations in cellulite reduction, non-surgical skin tightening, or butt lifting, are crafted using several common tricks. Advanced clinics with genuine results are overshadowed by a majority of practitioners who rely on fraudulent visuals to lure clients. One prevalent method involves Photoshop retouching to erase cellulite in “after” photos, a practice deemed fraudulent when used to mislead consumers. Some images are blatantly altered with obvious filters, yet they still attract unsuspecting individuals on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Another tactic manipulates lighting: harsh, unflattering light, such as ceiling spotlights, is used for “before” shots, while flattering frontal lighting, like camera flashes, enhances “after” images. This simple switch can create the illusion of improvement without any treatment. Some practitioners use stock photos from equipment manufacturers, which reflect results from unrelated clinics and vary due to differences in therapist skill or clinic priorities. Others steal authentic images from reputable clinics, passing them off as their own to falsely advertise budget equipment. A particularly deceptive scam involves stomach photos, where models push out their stomachs for “before” shots and pull them in for “after” ones, promoting ineffective fat removal treatments. Most shockingly, some post identical “before” and “after” images, relying on suggestive captions to convince viewers of nonexistent changes, exploiting naive audiences on social media. Cellulite creams face similar issues, with exaggerated claims and unfulfilled “satisfaction guaranteed” promises. Consumers are urged to scrutinise such images for these tricks, verify lighting consistency, and seek written assurances of authenticity. Beyond photos, researching a clinic’s reputation, reviews, and scientific backing is crucial to avoid falling for these manipulative practices.”
Don’t expert to learn anything useful from most “before and after” cellulite pictures
Unfortunately, 95%+ of cellulite “before and after pictures” are fake, obviously
Cellulite "before and after" pictures: six ways to fake them on Instagram, tiktok or your website
1. Do retouching on Photoshop to remove the cellulite on the "after" photos
2. Take fake cellulite pictures with harsh lighting "before" and flattering lighting "after":
3. Get some stock “before and after” cellulite pictures from your equipment manufacturer, showing a client treated at the other side of the world
4. Use “before and after pics” stolen from legitimate clinics and present them as yours
5. The stomach “before and after” photo scam
6. Hypnotise your Instagram audience to see change in the “after” photos, where there is absolutely none
Cellulite cream “before and after” pictures
Cellulite pictures before and after: The moral of the story is that…
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Unfortunately, 95%+ of “before and after cellulite pictures” are fake, obviously
Example of a fake cellulite before and after photo with different lighting before and after
At our clinic we offer the most advanced skin tightening and cellulite technologies and our “before and after pictures” are 100% genuine.
Sadly for our industry, this is not the case for the majority of clinics, salons or practitioners.
Someone trained in photography can easily see that 95% of the so-called “before and after” cellulite pictures on the web and social media are manipulated, aiming to take advantage of the public's ignorance and gullibility.
And the same applies to before and after pics of non-surgical skin lifting, skin tightening, non-surgical butt lifting etc.
Unfortunately, it is just too easy to be fooled by fake instagram pictures of C-list celebs "undergoing a non-surgical bum lift procedure" or experiencing an “amazing transformation” with their cellulite.
Above you can see a typical example of a fake “before and after picture”, and below you can read a list of the top six tricks used by unscrupulous so-called “professionals” (even at famous plastic surgeon clinics) to create fake before and after pics.
Learn about those tricks and don’t fall for the smooth operators.
Cellulite "before and after" pictures: six ways to fake them on Instagram, tiktok or your website
There are many ways for unscrupulous practitioners, salons and clinics to sell their “miracle treatments”.
In fact, if these practitioners showed as much ingenuity in offering a high-quality cellulite / bum lifting treatment as they show in creating fake pictures, they wouldn’t need to use fake pictures in the first place - but hey…
Six of those tricks stand out.
1. Do retouching on Photoshop to remove the cellulite on the "after" photos
The use of retouching on celebrity photos may be unethical, but the use of retouched "before and after" photos by salons, clinics and even the vast majority of anti-cellulite machine manufacturers is actually fraud.
So if you see photos too good to be true on a website, ask if they can confirm in writing that their photos are not retouched.
Some practitioners manipulate their before and after pics with ridiculously obvious "soft focus" filters applied on the "after" pictures. Even teenagers apply more subtle filters on their selfies than some of those practitioners. And yet those fake pictures still attract gullible people to fall for them on tiktok, instagram and other social media.
It is just so sad and pathetic…
2. Take fake cellulite pictures with harsh lighting "before" and flattering lighting "after":
This is by far the easiest trick, as you don’t need any photoshop skills. You just need to move the light a bit or use lighting from above before and full frontal light after. This is the trick we used on the example picture above.
This trick may not employ Photoshop wizardry, but it it is as devious and misleading for the consumer as retouching.
Again, beware: if you see photos too good to be true on a website, ask if they can confirm in writing that their photos are taken with identical lighting before and after. Or simply ask an experienced photographer to have a look at the photos - they can immediately tell the difference in two seconds.
As mentioned above, the most common trick is to:
Use a “downlight” (ceiling spotlight) for the “before picture” (the same lighting found in changing rooms, which is very unflattering
And then use a camera mounted flash for the “after picture”, which is full frontal lighting with no shadows, and therefore very flattering
In this way you don’t even need to provide your “miracle treatment” to your model. You can simply eliminate the cellulite in two minutes by switching on the flash on your camera or change the direction of your LED light.
Smart, uh?
And if you thought this is a trick only small-time therapists exploit, it would be useful to know that even big cellulite equipment manufacturers use such pictures, provided by famous cosmetic surgeons who work with them (what about that Hippocratic oath, uh)?
It’s that bad…
Now, being tricked for anything between £300 to £3,000 to have treatments based on fake “before and after” photos is bad enough. But imagine the naive practitioners / clinic owners who get tricked by such pictures to buy useless £30,000-£120,0000 equipment.
I was personally shown such fake pictures repeatedly by equipment distributors and manufacturers several times, and I get really angry when someone tries to get my hard-earned £30,000-£120,000 with fake “before and after” cellulite pictures.
It’s disgraceful.
Thankfully, I used to be a photographer and can recognise a fake “before and after” picture literally in a second. Plus, of course, I know cellulite equipment science inside-out, so such people have no luck with me.
They can sell their machines to the “miracle providers” on instagram with the fake before and after pics. They deserve each other.
3. Get some stock “before and after” cellulite pictures from your equipment manufacturer, showing a client treated on the other side of the world
Treatment quality varies widely from clinic to clinic, even when the exact same equipment is used at both clinics, due to variations on:
Therapist training and experience
Focus of the clinic on treatment results vs focus on maximum profitability
So using manufacturer-provided photos means absolutely nothing about the expertise, ethics and results offered at a specific clinic.
4. Use “before and after pics” stolen from legitimate clinics and present them as yours
We regularly see our genuine cellulite before and after pictures stolen and used on godforsaken websites, facebook/instagram profiles, youtube/tiktok videos as proof of the amazing results those practitioners / salons owners produce with £2,000 machine equipment.
And we regularly take down their pages as copyright infringement.
To be honest, the biggest crime here is not that they stole our pictures, the biggest crime is the fraud these people perpetrate against their own clients, blatantly lying to them about the results they can produce.
5. The stomach “before and after” photo scam
This is a really common and a dead-easy “before and after” scam to perpetrate.
Get your model to take a deep abdominal breath, pushing the stomach out, and hey presto, you have your “before” photo
Then ask your model to pull their stomach in and there is you “after” pic
And then you can sell your overpriced £800 “miracle” treatment, which eliminates “stomach fat” in one session, to the naive, the shallow and the gullible.
Have you noticed that most “fat removal” treatments are specifically for stomach fat? There is a reason for this and now you know why.
This trick is routinely used by so-called “non-surgical fat removal” (😂) machine manufacturers, because all it requires is a little air in the lungs to perpetrate, as that excess lung air is literally untraceable.
The world we live in…
6. Hypnotise your Instagram audience to see change in the “after” photos, where there is absolutely no change
That’s by far the easiest trick to fool your clients. No need to resort to anything “unethical”. You just hypnotise them with BS.
Sounds unbelievable, but certain smooth operators post “before and after pictures” where there is no visible change between the “before” and the “after” picture AT ALL.
But with captions such as “look at the amazing transformation on my client’s cellulite”, some naive people are hypnotised enough to leave enthusiastic comments such as “OMG, OMG, this is amazing, you are a miracle worker, I want it so bad in my life” and such…
As I said, it sounds difficult to believe it, but it does happen. A LOT. Just check a few Instagram / tiktok accounts and look at the reactions.
It’s ridiculous.
Cellulite cream “before and after” pictures
On this article we focused on fake before and after pictures after cellulite treatments, but the same issues apple to cellulite cream “before and after pictures”.
The same tricks are used, plus one more: fake satisfaction guaranteed and fake free returns.
In fact, with cellulite creams sometimes the claims are monstrous, with crazily exaggerated before and after pictures, combined with a satisfaction guarantee promise, which is never fulfilled (you ask for your money back and you get blanked by the company).
Of course, there can never be a “guaranteed satisfaction” with cellulite reduction, simply because the cream or treatment provider has no control over the client’s lifestyle, genetics and overall state of health, which can easily undermine the effect of any treatments/creams.
But if you are never going to give money back to anyone, why not make such fake offers, right?
Cellulite pictures before and after: The moral of the story is that…
…unfortunately there are a lot of unscrupulous and a lot of naive people in this world, and social media is a great place for them to find each other.
Don’t be one of them:
Look for the above six tricks in any before and after pics and additionally don’t just depend on photos to decide about a treatment
Look at overall reputation, check reviews, check press coverage, check published research papers, go there to ask questions and then use your common sense to decide about which clinic to choose
Learn more how to choose a cellulite treatment here.
Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment in London with the experts
At LipoTherapeia we have specialised 100% in skin tightening and cellulite reduction for more than two decades and 20,000+ sessions.
This is all we study and practise every day and have researched and tried hands-on all the important skin tightening equipment and their manufacturers.
As strong, deep acting radiofrequency and deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation are the technologies of choice for skin tightening and cellulite reduction, we have invested in the best RF/ultrasound technologies in the world.
Furthermore, over the last two decades we have developed advanced RF and cavitation treatment protocols in order to make the most of our technologies, for maximum results, naturally and safely.
And for even better, faster results, we now combine our RF/ultrasound treatments with high-power red/infrared light LED treatment.
Our radiofrequency/ultrasound/LED treatments are comfortable, pain-free, downtime-free, injection-free, 99.5%+ safe and always non-invasive.
(No unsafe and ineffective RF microneedling or HIFU and no safe but ineffective acoustic wave therapy, superficial RF (bipolar/tripolar/multipolar etc), low power RF/cavitation, electrical muscle stimulation, lymphatic massage, cupping, dry brushing and no ridiculous bum bum creams.)
Our focus is on honest, realistic, science-based treatment, combined with caring, professional service, with a smile.
We will be pleased to see you, assess your cellulite, skin laxity or fibrosis, listen to your story, discuss your case and offer you the best possible treatment.
Advanced, infrared / blue / red light therapy treatments in London at LipoTherapeia
At LipoTherapeia we are passionate about phototherapy (also known as photobiomodulation/PBM, red light therapy, infrared light therapy, blue light therapy, LED light therapy etc) and we use the most powerful equipment available today (up to 200mW/cm2), for best results and treatment of large body areas.
We use specialised therapy protocols for skin rejuvenation / anti-ageing, pigmentation / post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH), moderate/severe acne, skin redness, sensitive/inflamed/irritated skin, wound healing, sports injuries / musculoskeletal pain and overall wellness / well-being.
Our LED phototherapy sessions are comfortable, deeply relaxing and super-safe and are great to enhance our radiofrequency/ultrasound treatments for skin tightening / cellulite reduction.
On our booking page you can book stand-alone phototherapy sessions or combine them with our other treatments, as an add-on.
Learn more or check prices and book an expert LED phototherapy treatment at our London clinic.
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